JOHN'S LEGACY

SEAN AND JULIAN

It was never going to be easy living up to your dad when the man in question is John Lennon. Julian Lennon was born in Liverpool on 8 April 1963 and is the son of Cynthia Powell, John Lennon's first wife.

In a foretaste of what their later relationship would be like, John did not make it to Julian's christening.

Young Julian inspired several Beatles compositions as a child. He made a drawing of a classmate and Lucy in the Sky with Diamonds evolved.

Then, during Cynthia and John's divorce, he became the subject of Paul McCartney's Hey Jude.

His relationship with John was never close and he saw little of him after his marriage to Yoko Ono.

Sean the beloved

After many miscarriages Yoko Ono gave birth to a son, Sean Ono Lennon, on 9 October 1975.

Legend always had it that John gave up music for four years to care for his newborn son Sean.

But a recent biography of Lennon, by Geoffrey Giuliano, claims the break was quite simply caused by unemployment, because John's record contract had expired.

Whatever the truth, Sean grew up with a present father and a strong mother in Yoko Ono.

Later life

Always musical, Julian began playing guitar and drums at age ten, adding piano as a teenager.

His singing career was moderately sucessful but the critics just could not forget who his father was, not helped by the fact that his voice is definitely similar to his father's.

Sean too took after his father and began recording music.

In the spring of 1998 Julian and Sean released albums almost at the same time.

Claims of a feud arose, but both insisted it was merely coincidence.

Julian's album, the largely acoustic Photograph Smile, was accused of attempting to sound like John, but critics at least felt this was no bad thing.

Sean's eclectic and in parts jazzy first album Into The Sun received one out of ten in music weekly NME.

Sean now plays with his Japanese girlfriend Yuka Honda in a New York-based band, Cibo Matto, as well as collaborating on a dizzying array of other musical projects.

To date neither son seems particularly enamoured of their famous father.

Sean once said: "I think of my dad as a huge asshole. The only thing that made it okay was that he could admit it."

Julian posted musings on his website about his father's inadequacies on his website.

But the brothers at least maintain solidarity with each other.

On his website Julian expressed his love for his brother Sean and said: "I hope that he's able to cope with his destiny."

Yoko's role

Yoko Ono was an artist and musician of repute long before she ever met John Lennon in London in 1966, although her art was more widely known for its notoriety.

These days she still works as an artist and exhibits occasionally.

Her work remains conceptual, in that the ideas that are behind the art are as important as the final product.

She still lives as quietly as is possible in the Dakota Building in New York, close to the spot where John died.

Julian was left nothing by his father and ended up fighting a protracted legal battle with his stepmother to get some of his father's estate, ending up with an estimated £20 million in 1998.

There is little love lost between the two with Julian claiming his father was a "manipulated soul" on his website.

Julian Lennon

Julian Lennon, the son of murdered Beatles star John, has revealed his bitterness that his father was so often absent.
In a message posted on www.julianlennon.com, he blamed John's fear of fatherhood and his relationship with Yoko Ono for the distance that came between them.

"I had a great deal of anger towards Dad because of his negligence and his attitude to peace and love, that peace and love never came home to me," he wrote.

The message is to mark the 20th anniversary of his father's shooting by obsessed fan Mark Chapman on 8 December 1980 in New York.

Julian, Lennon's son from his first marriage, described his father as a "guiding light" who was "sucked into a black hole".

He said he went through "love/hate relationships" with him whether he was there or not.

"I wonder what it would have been like if he were alive today," he wrote.

"I guess it would have depended on whether he was `John Lennon' (Dad) or `John Ono Lennon' (manipulated lost soul)."

'Manipulated'

He said he thought his father's work was incredible and so was what he achieved with his the three other Beatles, Paul, George and Ringo.

But he said it did not give him any clear insight into what his father's real life was about or how he truly felt about it.

Julian, himself a musician, also spoke of the expectations he has had to live up to being a music legend's son

"Life is difficult enough," he said.

"Trying to find one's own identity makes it even harder, especially when you're not allowed to be you."

Brotherly love

In his message he speaks with warmth about his half-brother Sean, Yoko Ono and John's son.

"I have a brother and I love Sean very much and I hope that he's able to cope with his destiny," he said.

"One thing's for sure he's got a big brother who will protect him and love him till the end, whatever happens."

He rounds off his message with a few words for his father.

"I just wanted to say that wherever he is I hope he realises the mistakes he's made as I realise them and hope never to repeat them, as he did his father's," he wrote.